Tag: read naked

A view on reading?

Okay, if this surprises you, you haven’t been paying much attention. Hibernationists excluded of course, they have a valid (I hope!) reason.

Yes. Naturists read books. And whenever possible this naturist likes to read in the nude. There’s nothing to it really. Just make yourself comfortable, get a good book, and you’re ready to go.

It’s that easy. Although finding a good book might throw you at times.

Why in the nude?

Well, I did say comfortable, didn’t I? As long as you’re comfortable, you’re in the right state to read. If you feel great and ready to read for a while when you’re uncomfortable, I’d love to hear from you how you do that. And certainly also why.

And what do naturists read?

Anything. Literally anything. Horror like you can expect from Anthony Crowley (@crowley_anthony on Twitter, he’s a naturist), poetry and introspective works like Robert Longpré writes (find out more about him on our new site NaturistFiction.org!) but there’s no limit to what naturists read. Romance? Historical fiction? Sure. Detectives? Fantasy and Science Fiction? Why not? And no, that doesn’t necessarily have to be naturist-related fiction. I can enjoy a good Agatha Christie story, or most anything by Ursula Leguin.

So who reads in the nude?

Probably more people than you’d guess if you’re not a naturist yourself. People in parks can do that, people at home, at a camping or anywhere that you can take a book to. In New York there’s an actual group of woman, united in ToplessPulp, that get together and read topless in parks all over New York. This because women can legally be topless in that city (even when many police people don’t seem to be aware of that).

When I go to our local nude beach I always have a book with me. Reading’s fun and you can do it in most places.

So there you have it. Reading in the nude isn’t something awkward or mad or new. It’s nude, nothing else.

Next time you get your hands on a good book, try it yourself. Experience the ease of reading without clothes pulling in places you don’t like pulling. You could be in for a nice surprise!

By Alison Gaylin

They crop up in New York City’s public parks when the weather gets warm: clusters of bold young women, poring over volumes of crime fiction, horror, sci fi, erotica— whatever books they can get their hands on—chatting, snacking, soaking up the sun. All of them are completely naked from the waist up.

The group is known as the Outdoor Co-Ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society. It’s just three years old, but continues to grow exponentially, in both notoriety and numbers. To date, OCTPFAS has swelled from around a dozen to 100 regular members, while its blog has racked up more than 8 million hits. They’ve received fan mail from columnist Dave Barry (who also blogged about them) and a carton of free books from the late Elmore Leonard. They’ve dined with authors Lawrence Block and Christa Faust, sparked newspaper headlines and myth-like rumors (Did Bob Dylan really paint one of their meetings in Central Park?) and have found themselves, more than once, playing the role of muse. “Authors have written about us,” says the group’s founder, an avid reader who goes by the name Alethea. “One wrote us a poem recently. It’s fun.”

It all started with Getting Off. Back in 2011, Alethea was talking to her friend, publisher Charles Ardai, about Lawrence Block’s steamy new crime novel, an upcoming release from Ardai’s company, Hard Case Crime. Getting Off was causing some in-house concern because of its cover. “Is it too much?” Ardai asked Alethea, holding up the proposed book jacket, which depicted a completely naked woman walking in on a lover, long dagger clasped behind her back. “Would you read this in public?”

It was a legitimate question for Ardai to ask a female reader. This was 2011 – the same year that Fifty Shades of Grey first leapt onto the scene and skyrocketed, largely due to the fact that, as an e-book, it lacked a cover. As numerous breathless articles pointed out, Fifty Shades could be safely read anywhere: on a commuter train, waiting for your kindergartener’s school bus, working the cashbox at a church bake sale – anywhere. And no one would be the wiser.